Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity

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Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity

• Chapter 11

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Core Case Study A Biological Roller Coaster Ride
in Lake Victoria

• Loss of biodiversity and cichlids
• Nile perch deliberately introduced
• Frequent algal blooms
• Nutrient runoff
• Spills of untreated sewage
• Less algae-eating cichlids

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11-1 What Are the Major Threats to Aquatic
Biodiversity?

• Concept 11-1 Aquatic species are threatened by
  habitat loss, invasive species, pollution,
  climate change, and overexploitation, all made
  worse by the growth of the human population.

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We Have Much to Learn about Aquatic Biodiversity

• Greatest marine biodiversity
• Coral reefs
• Estuaries
• Deep-ocean floor
• Biodiversity is higher
• Near the coast than in the open sea
• In the bottom region of the ocean than the
  surface region

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Human Activities Are Destroying and Degrading
Aquatic Habitats

• Habitat loss and degradation
• Marine
• Coastal
• Ocean floor effect of trawlers
• Freshwater
• Dams
• Excessive water withdrawal

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Invasive Species Are Degrading Aquatic
Biodiversity

• Invasive species
• Threaten native species
• Disrupt and degrade whole ecosystems
• Three examples
• Water hyacinth Lake Victoria (East Africa)
• Asian swamp eel waterways of south Florida
• Purple loosestrife indigenous to Europe
• Treating with natural predatorsa weevil species
  and a leaf-eating beetleWill it work?

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Science Focus How Carp Have Muddied Some Waters

• Lake Wingra, Wisconsin (U.S.) eutrophic
• Contains invasive species
• Purple loosestrife and the common carp
• Dr. Richard Lathrop
• Removed carp from an area of the lake
• This area appeared to recover

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Population Growth and Pollution Can Reduce
Aquatic Biodiversity

• Nitrates and phosphates mainly from fertilizers
  enter water
• Leads to eutrophication
• Toxic pollutants from industrial and urban areas

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Climate Change Is a Growing Threat

• Global warming sea levels will rise and aquatic
  biodiversity is threatened
• Coral reefs
• Swamp some low-lying islands
• Drown many highly productive coastal wetlands
• New Orleans, Louisiana, and New York City

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Science Focus Protecting and Restoring Mangroves

• Protect and restore mangroves
• Reduce the impact of rising sea levels
• Protect against tropical storms and tsunamis
• Cheaper than building concrete sea walls
• Mangrove forests in Indonesia

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Overfishing and Extinction Gone Fishing, Fish
Gone

• Marine and freshwater fish
• Threatened with extinction by human activities
  more than any other group of species
• Commercial extinction
• Collapse of the cod fishery and its domino effect
• Bycatch

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Case Study Industrial Fish Harvesting Methods

• Trawler fishing
• Purse-seine fishing
• Longlining
• Drift-net fishing

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11-2 How Can We Protect and Sustain Marine
Biodiversity?

• Concept 11-2 We can help to sustain marine
  biodiversity by using laws and economic
  incentives to protect species, setting aside
  marine reserves to protect ecosystems, and using
  community-based integrated coastal management.

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Legal Protection of Some Endangered and
Threatened Marine Species

• Why is it hard to protect marine biodiversity?
• Human ecological footprint and fishprint are
  expanding
• Much of the damage in the ocean is not visible
• The oceans are incorrectly viewed as an
  inexhaustible resource
• Most of the ocean lies outside the legal
  jurisdiction of any country

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Case Study Protecting Whales A Success Story
So Far

• Cetaceans Toothed whales and baleen whales
• 1946 International Whaling Commission (IWC)
• 1970 U.S.
• Stopped all commercial whaling
• Banned all imports of whale products
• 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling
• Pros
• Cons

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Economic Incentives Can Be Used to Sustain
Aquatic Biodiversity

• Tourism
• Economic rewards
• Reconciliation ecology

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Case Study Holding Out Hope for Marine Turtles

• Carl Safina, Voyage of the Turtle
• Studies of the leatherback turtle
• Threats to the leatherbacks
• Trawlers
• Pollution
• Climate change
• Communities protecting the turtles

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Individuals Matter Creating an Artificial Coral
Reef in Israel

• Reuven Yosef, Red Sea Star Restaurant
• Coral reef restoration
• Reconciliation ecology
• Treatment of broken coral with antibiotics

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Marine Sanctuaries Protect Ecosystems and Species

• Offshore fishing
• Exclusive economic zones
• High seas
• Law of the Sea Treaty
• Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

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Establishing a Global Network of Marine Reserves
An Ecosystem Approach (1)

• Marine reserves
• Closed to
• Commercial fishing
• Dredging
• Mining and waste disposal
• Core zone
• No human activity allowed
• Less harmful activities allowed
• E.g., recreational boating and shipping

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Establishing a Global Network of Marine Reserves
An Ecosystem Approach (2)

• Fully protected marine reserves work fast
• Fish populations double
• Fish size grows
• Reproduction triples
• Species diversity increase by almost one-fourth

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Protecting Marine Biodiversity Individuals and
Communities Together

• Integrated Coastal Management
• Community-based group to prevent further
  degradation of the ocean

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11-3 How Should We Manage and Sustain Marine
Fisheries?

• Concept 11-3 Sustaining marine fisheries will
  require improved monitoring of fish populations,
  cooperative fisheries management among
  communities and nations, reduction of fishing
  subsidies, and careful consumer choices in
  seafood markets.

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Estimating and Monitoring Fishery Populations Is
the First Step

• Maximum sustained yield (MSY) traditional
  approach
• Optimum sustained yield (OSY)
• Multispecies management
• Large marine systems using large complex
  computer models
• Precautionary principle

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Some Communities Cooperate to Regulate Fish
Harvests

• Community management of the fisheries
• Comanagement of the fisheries with the government

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Government Subsidies Can Encourage Overfishing

• 2007 World Trade Organization, U.S.
• Proposed a ban on fishing subsidies
• Reduce illegal fishing on the high seas and in
  coastal waters
• Close ports and markets to such fishers
• Check authenticity of ship flags
• Prosecution of offenders

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Some Countries Use the Marketplace to Control
Overfishing

• Individual transfer rights (ITRs)
• Control access to fisheries
• New Zealand and Iceland
• Difficult to enforce
• Problems with the ITR approach

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Consumer Choices Can Help to Sustain Fisheries
and Aquatic Biodiversity

• 1997 Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), London
• Supports sustainable fishing
• Certifies sustainably produced seafood
• Manage global fisheries more sustainably
• Individuals
• Organizations
• Governments

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11-4 How Should We Protect and Sustain Wetlands?

• Concept 11-4 To maintain the ecological and
  economic services of wetlands, we must maximize
  preservation of remaining wetlands and
  restoration of degraded and destroyed wetlands.

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Coastal and Inland Wetlands Are Disappearing
around the World

• Highly productive wetlands
• Provide natural flood and erosion control
• Maintain high water quality natural filters
• Effect of rising sea levels

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We Can Preserve and Restore Wetlands

• Laws for protection
• Mitigation banking
• Ecologists argue this as a last resort

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Individuals Matter Restoring a Wetland

• Jim Callender 1982
• Scientific knowledge hard work
• a restored wetland in California, U.S.
• Marsh used again by migratory fowl

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Case Study Can We Restore the Florida
Everglades? (1)

• River of Grass south Florida, U.S.
• Since 1948 damaged
• Drained
• Diverted
• Paved over
• Nutrient pollution from agriculture
• Invasive plant species
• 1947 Everglades National Park unsuccessful
  protection project

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Case Study Can We Restore the Florida
Everglades? (2)

• 1970s political haggling
• 1990 Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
  (CERP)
• Restore the curving flow of most of the Kissimmee
  River
• Remove canals and levees in strategic locations
• Flood 240 sq. km farmland to create artificial
  marshes
• Goal?

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Case Study Can We Restore the Florida
Everglades? (3)

• Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP)
  cont
• Create reservoirs and underground water storage
  areas
• Build new canals, reservoirs and efficient
  pumping systems
• Why isnt this plan working?

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11-5 How Can Protect and Sustain Freshwater
Lakes, Rivers, and Fisheries?

• Concept 11-5 Freshwater ecosystems are strongly
  affected by human activities on adjacent lands,
  and protecting these ecosystems must include
  protection of their watersheds.

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Freshwater Ecosystems Are under Major Threats

• Think HIPPCO

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Case Study Can the Great Lakes Survive Repeated
Invasions by Alien Species?

• Collectively, worlds largest body of freshwater
• Invaded by at least 162 nonnative species
• Sea lamprey
• Zebra mussel
• Good and bad
• Quagga mussel
• Asian carp

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Managing River Basins Is Complex and
Controversial

• Columbia River U.S. and Canada
• Dam system
• Pros and cons
• Snake River Washington state, U.S.
• Hydroelectric dams
• Pros and cons

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We Can Protect Freshwater Ecosystems by
Protecting Watersheds

• Freshwater ecosystems protected through
• Laws
• Economic incentives
• Restoration efforts
• Wild rivers and scenic rivers
• Sustainable management of freshwater fishes

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11-6 What Are the Priorities for Sustained
Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services?

• Concept 11-6 Sustaining the worlds biodiversity
  and ecosystem services will require mapping
  terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, maximizing
  protection of undeveloped terrestrial and aquatic
  areas, and carrying out ecological restoration
  projects worldwide.

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We Need to Set Priorities for Protecting
Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services

• 2002 Edward O. Wilson
• Complete the mapping of the worlds terrestrial
  and aquatic biodiversity
• Keep old-growth forests intact cease their
  logging
• Identify and preserve hotspots and deteriorating
  ecosystem services that threaten life
• Ecological restoration projects
• Make conservation financially rewarding